96 yr old w/muscle invasive bladder cancer

3 years 6 months ago #59844 by joea73
Replied by joea73 on topic 96 yr old w/muscle invasive bladder cancer
Does the hospital provide psyco-concology service to cancer patients?
Psyco-oncologist is psychologist specializing in cancer and cancer patients.

A while ago, I watched a video interview by a psyco-oncologist (sorry I cannot find it now). One of his case
was a female patient who did not want to have a chemotherapy. The psyco-oncologist evaluated
the patient and determined the the patient had depression. So, he prescribed anti-depression
drug. Sometime later, the patient came back told the psyco-oncologist that she was going to
have the chemotherapy in rather up-beat mood.
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3 years 6 months ago #59836 by sara.anne
Replied by sara.anne on topic 96 yr old w/muscle invasive bladder cancer
This is very difficult. If your father is mentally competent this is his decision. I hope that he has discussed this carefully with his doctors to be sure that he understands exactly what the treatment would entail so that his decision would be an educated one.

Your role is to support and love him no matter what his decision!

Sara Anne

Diagnosis 2-08 Small papillary TCC; CIS
BCG; BCG maintenance
Vice-President, American Bladder Cancer Society
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3 years 6 months ago #59835 by readabook
Replied by readabook on topic 96 yr old w/muscle invasive bladder cancer
my 92 year old father was presented with this option. He has aggressive invasive bladder cancer. He is reluctant to go for regular infusions and very worried what a PET scan would reveal. Which he would have to do regularly. He just is tired and not into any of this . It's hard. I understand where he is coming from.

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4 years 5 months ago #58420 by sara.anne
Replied by sara.anne on topic 96 yr old w/muscle invasive bladder cancer
So sorry to hear about your father-in-law. Immunotherapy, most notably Ketruda, does appear to be relatively more tolerable than chemo and has been effective in some cases.

Sara Anne

Diagnosis 2-08 Small papillary TCC; CIS
BCG; BCG maintenance
Vice-President, American Bladder Cancer Society
Forum Moderator

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4 years 5 months ago #58419 by drmike
My 96 year old father in law was diagnosed in January 2019 w/ muscle invasive bladder cancer and decided on no treatment. He subsequently agreed to radiation but only had 2 treatments. He had another cystoscopy 3 months ago that showed bladder cancer in situ. Another cysto was done this week and today biopsy results show muscle invasive bladder cancer. Surgery is not an option for his age and chemo would likely be fatal for him so his urologist is saying that he could possibly have immunotherapy. Any thoughts on this?

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